


remember me as i am (not just who i was)

by nerdiests



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Breath of the Wild Fusion, F/M, Memory Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26151343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiests/pseuds/nerdiests
Summary: Robin doesn't remember much. Scratch that - she doesn't remember anything. All she knows is that there's a voice that keeps on talking to her, she's in a place called "Hyrule" and she wants to learn as much as she can. What's an amnesiac to do? Save the country, she supposes.-aka - I put the fire emblem awakening cast in breath of the wild
Relationships: Chrom/My Unit | Reflet | Robin
Comments: 15
Kudos: 31





	1. awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i am Actually Indulging in my fire emblem brainrot i've had since january what a surprise!!
> 
> i am highkey fixating and i had this idea back at the end of july, and i just Had to get it written down, so here's the first chapter! i'm very excited to see what comes from this :D
> 
> a very big thank you to my friends that listened to me rant and rave about this for almost a month straight - you know who you are and i love you
> 
> anyways, Fire Emblem Good and Legend of Zelda Good Too
> 
> i hope you enjoy!! :D

Darkness. It wrapped around her like a cloak, keeping her in its embrace as she rested, her mind taking the opportunity to slow down for one short moment. There was nothing else. No sensations, just all-enveloping  _ dark. _ Simultaneously, it felt welcoming and foreign. As if she could almost take a step and…

_ ‘Robin!’ _

...Hm? What was… What was that?  _ Who _ was that? They sounded… Almost familiar, she thought. Maybe they were trying to get her to leave the darkness? It seemed like a good idea, but she was comfortable and  _ safe _ here, she thought. Why leave when she could stay here, even though it felt  _ off _ in a way she couldn’t explain.

_ ‘Robin, come on!’  _

Who was… Who was this “Robin” they spoke of? She didn’t know anyone by that name, but to be fair… She didn’t really remember much at all, aside from this darkness surrounding her. If she had ever known a person by that name, they were lost to her now. 

_ ‘Robin, you need to  _ **_wake up_ ** _!’ _

Her eyes flew open. Blue was all she could see as she felt a watery substance draining around her. Blinking a few times, she sat up slowly, attempting to adjust to being able to see quite suddenly. Something tickled the back of her neck, which proved to be hair upon reaching back to investigate. This was… This was new. To be fair, everything was new. 

She was wondering, though, why  _ she _ had responded to the voice that called for a “Robin” because she… Didn’t know her own name. It was plausible that Robin was her name, and considering that she had no other sources to contradict that fact, Robin decided that must be the case. 

With that matter settled, Robin looked around, squinting as she did so. It was dark, with blue-tinged light filling the room she sat in. Blinking yet again, Robin stretched her arms out, fingertips meeting with the sides of whatever she sat in. Some sort of pod, she supposed. A pod that she was quite eager to get out of. Grabbing onto the edge of it, Robin hefted herself up and very nearly fell over again. Oh, her legs did not want to support her properly, did they?

Huffing to herself, Robin spent the next few minutes - it might’ve been longer than that, but Robin was none the wiser, considering the lack of natural light in whatever this room was - slowly steadying herself on her feet, legs trembling like a newborn fawn’s. Taking a step might not be the best idea at the moment, but she  _ really _ wanted to leave this infernal pod. Despite how shallow it actually was, it seemed that getting out would be a great task. Taking great care as she did so, Robin slowly lifted her less stable leg over the edge of the pod, keeping both hands effectively glued to the sides in a vice-like grip. 

Robin made it out of the pod. She might have almost fallen, but her arms didn’t falter even when her legs did. As she took another look around the room, Robin could have sworn she felt some sort of concern, even though she knew that she wasn’t concerned herself. Although she  _ was _ rather curious, when she noticed the pedestal covered in blue lights in the dimly lit room. Wobbling as she walked, Robin slowly made her way over to the pedestal, grabbing onto the edges of it like a lifeline as she stopped. Considering how she was essentially holding herself up, it was nearly a miracle that when the pedestal started to move, Robin didn’t let go and fall onto the floor. It was a near thing, though. 

Something rectangular emerged from the pedestal, something lit up with blue and orange lights, an eye emblazoned clearly on it. Her brow furrowed slightly as she lifted one hand to touch it. 

_ ‘That’s the… That’s a Sheikah Slate. It should help… I think it has a map? It… It  _ **_will_ ** _ help, especially after everything that’s happened.’ _

Somehow, Robin didn’t flinch at the voice she heard, though the fact that this voice was the one that woke her likely contributed to that fact. Either way, with the reassurance that this wouldn’t harm her, Robin firmly grabbed onto the now-dubbed Sheikah Slate, finding a handle to grab onto fairly easily. The screen lit up the moment Robin held it, with yet another eye logo in the center of the screen. What was it with this room and  _ eyes?  _ Intrigued as she was, Robin didn’t notice the door to the next room opening until the scratching of stone upon stone caught her attention. Hm. 

The opening only led into another room, just as dimly lit as the first. Robin ended up smacking her foot on a chest in the middle of the room, but it was just as well for her. After all, she would rather walk around in the clothing she found in the chest than in what she woke in. She also had a belt to hook the Sheikah Slate onto now, which was quite beneficial. Speaking of, at the end of the room that ended up being more of a corridor, there was another pedestal for Robin to place the Slate on. The voice that rang out in the room did catch her by surprise, though. 

“Sheikah Slate confirmed.” A clear and crisp voice echoed around her, with the lined wall - a door, Robin realized - in front of her starting to slowly rise up in response to the voice. A bright light started to stream into the corridor as the door opened up and Robin squinted as she stepped forward, the soft sound of her boots clicking on the stony ground getting drowned out by the sudden amalgam of noises she could hear outside. Birds chirping, wind rustling through trees, the occasional cry of an animal she couldn’t identify (a boar, her mind told her almost moments later), and squeals from some other source. She took a hesitant step forward, before the voice from before spoke up. 

_ ‘Robin… The wind at my back, the sword at my side, you’re the light that Hyrule needs. The  _ **_hope_ ** _ it needs. Go.’ _

What was… What was “Hyrule?” Mmm… Robin had no clue, but she trusted the voice that seemed to be in her head. Under other circumstances, that would be a rightfully odd statement, but considering Robin could remember nothing before the darkness, she thought it was justified. Nodding to herself, she headed up the stairs in front of her with surety. Whatever this “Hyrule” that this voice of hers spoke of, she would ensure it would be safe. 

Whoever had decided that putting a sheer cliff face in the middle of a hallway instead of a set of stairs would be facing Robin’s wrath, she thought as she pulled herself up the short rock face that led to the second set of stairs. Why they weren’t just  _ connected _ baffled her. That thought quickly disappeared though, once Robin got a peek of the cave-esque opening. Running up the stairs and through the exit, Robin let her momentum carry her forward and out into the absolute beauty that was outside. 

Blue was the first word that came to mind, she thought, as Robin gazed up at the cloud-dusted sky. Beautiful followed not long after as her eyes drifted from the sky to the scenery. Fields of green filled her vision, with wisps of fog drifting above it and rocks breaking up the endless green she saw occasionally. The spires of a castle were visible in the distance, and when Robin turned she could see a volcano on the horizon. Almost unconsciously, she gasped. 

“It’s wonderful,” Robin whispered, letting herself stand there for a moment and process the scene before her. The light breeze carried the scent of the morning dew and wildflowers, with the unique crispness that the morning brought. Robin’s eyes slid shut as she stood at the cliff’s edge, basking in the breeze and the sunlight. For those few moments, Robin felt at peace. 

Then her eyes opened again. The moment ended. Blinking a few times, Robin looked around, her eyes drifting to a plume of smoke rising in the sky. Following the trail of smoke from the sky to the ground, she spotted a stone outcropping with a campfire, with someone huddled near it. Robin smiled ever so slightly. She wasn’t alone out here. Thank goodness. 

* * *

On the admittedly short walk to the campfire, Robin passed by an apple tree and a few mushrooms that she instinctively  _ knew _ weren’t poisonous. Confident in that knowledge, she collected the mushrooms and picked the low-hanging apples. Carefully putting them in the bag she’d found with the clothes in the artificial cavern, Robin kept on moving, snatching up a stick on the ground as she did. 

As she approached the campfire, Robin could see more of the person huddled near it. They had blonde hair, something on their forehead that she couldn’t really make out, and as Robin accidentally stepped on a branch, they looked up and locked eyes with her. 

“Oh! I wasn’t expecting to see anyone else up here,” they said, smiling as they spoke. Tapping the stick she held against her leg, Robin raised an eyebrow curiously. 

“Who are you?” she asked, clearing her throat almost immediately afterwards. She was… Not expecting her voice to sound as raspy as it did. The blonde laughed, although Robin got the feeling that it wasn’t  _ at _ her, necessarily. 

“No one particularly important. Just a woman looking for a change of scenery,” the blonde woman said. Feeling simultaneously suspicious and relieved, Robin nodded, standing at the edge of the rock outcropping covering the campfire. 

“Oh, where are my manners - come, come! Sit down, if you’d like. I have a spare baked apple, if you’re hungry,” the blonde woman said, patting the ground next to her. Cautiously, Robin sat on the ground across the campfire from the woman, the baked apple she mentioned sitting near her. Robin picked up the apple from where it sat, inspecting it and brushing it off as she did so. It smelled utterly  _ divine _ . Casting away her suspicions, Robin took a bite of the apple and-! 

“Oh goddess this is  _ fantastic, _ ” Robin murmured, mouth full of baked apple. The woman laughed. 

“I like to think I’ve grown better at cooking during my stay on the plateau, here,” she said. Robin’s brow furrowed at her words. Plateau? Is that where she - where  _ they _ \- were? 

“Plateau?” Robin asked curiously. The blonde woman blinked, before chuckling with a very familiar glint in her eye. Robin didn’t know why it was familiar, but either way. 

“Ah, you caught that. This is the Great Plateau. Legends say that Hyrule was born here,” she said. Now this was the  _ second _ time that someone mentioned a “Hyrule.” Robin was growing very curious as to what this “Hyrule” was. 

“There’s a temple just down the road that hosted many sacred ceremonies,” the woman continued, gesturing with one hand behind her. Robin leaned around her, attempting to get a look at the temple the woman mentioned, prompting another chuckle. The woman murmured something under her breath that Robin didn’t catch, before continuing. 

“With the decline of the kingdom a hundred years past, the temple has been left forgotten. The two of us may be the only ones that can visit it, as well,” the blonde woman said, before reaching for her bag and beginning to rummage around for something. 

“I think I might… Oh, I know it was in here somewhere,” she muttered. Robin sat silently, somehow resisting the urge to ask what exactly the woman was looking for as she nearly stuck her head into her bag in her search. After a moment or two, the woman cried out triumphantly, pulling out a book from her bag and offering it to Robin.

“This book belongs to a friend of mine - it’s her favorite book about Hyrulian history,” the woman said. Hearing that, Robin put up her hands in protest.

“I can’t take that, it belongs to your friend!” she protested, although it was a truly half-hearted one. For one, Robin felt like she shouldn’t be protesting what this woman said. For another … She really wanted to read that book. Knowledge was right at her fingertips! 

“Oh, I doubt she’ll mind if I give it to you - you can return it to her, after all,” the woman said, an odd smile on her face. Robin wasn’t sure what kind of expression the woman was making, but it wasn’t one she could place. 

“If you’re sure…” Robin replied, taking the book gingerly. No matter how much Robin wanted to utterly devour the knowledge that laid within this book, she would still need to take care with it. This wasn’t her book, after all. As she thought that, there was a sense of extreme amusement from somewhere, but it wasn’t hers and Robin had no clue what was so funny. 

“Feel free to stay by the campfire as long as you would like,” the woman said, reaching into her bag again to rummage for something else. Robin nodded, quickly finishing up the baked apple the woman had offered her, before getting up and dusting off her ill-fitting pants. 

“Well, thank you for the baked apple. And the book! I… suppose I’ll see you around this plateau?” Robin said, giving a small smile. The woman returned Robin’s smile as she pulled out another book from her bag. An odd marking was on the cover, one that Robin  _ felt _ was familiar, but couldn’t place. 

Putting that out of her mind, Robin slipped her new book into her bag, grabbed her stick from where it sat on the ground, and started the trek down the hill towards the ruined temple the blonde woman pointed out to her. Not long after she started down the hill, however, that same voice called out to her again. 

_ ‘Robin! There’s something on the Sheikah Slate you should look at. It’ll help.’  _

Hm… Well, Robin didn’t have any proof that there  _ wasn’t _ anything on her Sheikah Slate. Unclasping the Slate from her belt, Robin slid her hand across the side and pressed down, hearing a ‘click’ as the screen lit up, displaying what she guessed was a blank map, with only a glowing yellow dot on the screen. Huh. She should probably check that out. Robin hoped she wouldn’t make a habit of listening to the voice she kept on hearing, but if it was going to continue to help her like this, then she wouldn’t have a choice. Voices in your head were one thing,  _ helpful  _ ones were another altogether. 

With a goal in mind, Robin continued to head down the hill, grabbing an axe wedged in a stump on her way down. It wasn’t balanced well for fighting, but it could work in a pinch. Better than the stick she’d snatched off the ground. Nodding to herself, Robin slipped the axe onto her back where the stick had been, and put the stick in her bag after a moment of deliberation. She wasn’t sure how it fit, considering how her bag was considerably smaller than the stick’s length, but Robin knew she could and would figure it out. 

Engrossed in the Slate’s nonexistent map as Robin was, she didn’t realize there was something in front of her until she’d fallen to the ground. Almost automatically, Robin scooted back as she sat up, reaching into her bag for the stick and swinging it forward to smack into whatever had knocked her over. With an almost squishy sound, the stick connected with something… Blue? Blue and gelatinous, with eyes floating in it. Shaking her head, Robin swung the stick again. The squishy sound she’d heard was cut off by a ‘poof,’ a small cloud of purplish-black smoke taking the blue blob’s place. 

_ ‘A chu-chu… Ha! I can’t believe you tripped over a  _ **_chu-chu_ ** _ , Robin!’ _

Robin pouted as she got the impression of a laugh from the voice she heard. It wasn’t  _ funny! _ And almost to spite her thoughts, that feeling of laughter only grew in intensity. Crossing her arms, Robin started forward again, only pausing to snatch the Sheikah Slate off the ground from where it had fallen. 

The rest of her trek towards the dot on what Robin thought was a map was much less treacherous. She made sure to not keep her eyes locked onto the Slate and didn’t run into anything else or trip over anything. Yes, Robin ran into a few monsters - bokoblins, according to both the voice she kept on hearing and some inner sense she had. She ended up acquiring an actual sword from one of them, along with some arrows that ended up getting shoved into her bag due to her lack of a quiver. 

Her short journey led her to some sort of cave - although calling it a cave would be too generous, in Robin’s opinion. Rocks covered some sort of spire, with the tip of it sticking out of the top. Stepping carefully, Robin approached the opening to the spire, clambering up the rocks leading onto the elevated platform. She could spy another one of the pedestals from the cave she’d left earlier. 

“Now how did this get here,” Robin murmured, taking the Slate off her belt where she’d left it. Approaching slowly - just in case - Robin nearly startled when a disembodied voice rang out around her. 

“Place the Sheikah Slate on the pedestal.” Shaking her head slightly, Robin carefully placed the Slate in the opening. With a slight clicking sound, the Slate flipped over and part of the pedestal sunk back into the rest, turning as it did so. An orangish light flashed, getting Robin to cover her face with one arm. 

“Sheikah Tower activated.” The voice rang out again, and this time Robin didn’t repress the flinch. 

“Please watch for falling rocks,” the voice continued. Robin’s brow furrowed. What did it mean, falling-

The floor started to shift under her feet as the ground shuddered. Robin attempted to steady herself, but...

_ ‘Robin, watch out!’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've got a [tumblr](http://nerdiests.tumblr.com) if you want to go check it out!


	2. an adventure begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With _that_ rude awakening out of the way, Robin has an actual task to complete! Her only problem... How is she going to get down?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, yes, i know it's been half a month, but i have chapter two right here! it just took. too much time to get editing done, but it's here now! yeehaw i suppose!
> 
> many thanks to my lovely friends that listened to me talking about this (and a few friends in particular that helped me figure out some Major Plot Points), and my friend nathaniel that read over everything! 
> 
> now. fire emblem brainrot chapter two, commencing

Consciousness came back to Robin in increments. The stone on her back, the breeze on her face, the tweeting of birds ever so faint… Slowly, her eyes opened, the stone ceiling of the spire greeting her. 

_ ‘Goddess, Robin… Are you alright?’ _

Blinking a few times, Robin sat up slowly, one hand reaching for the back of her head carefully. Not feeling any traces of blood, she slowly got off the ground and looked around curiously. A flash of blue caught her attention and she whirled around, wincing slightly at the sudden movement. Apparently she  _ did  _ get hurt to some degree from the tower’s unexpected movement. Who would’ve thought?

Either way, the source of the blue light - a stalactite-like pillar attached to the roof of the spire - started to glow at its tip as runes travelled along the body of the pillar. Robin narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing every detail as the blue light grew brighter. It was as if it was collecting itself for something. Robin wasn’t sure what, but right as that thought passed through her mind, the light… Disconnected from the pillar and fell to the pedestal where the Slate sat with a splatter? Weird. Robin did  _ not _ know that light could act like a liquid like that. Despite her slight recoil from the light droplets, Robin leaned in closer as the empty map-like screen reappeared, with a portion of it quickly filling in. 

“Aha, so it  _ is _ a map,” Robin said triumphantly, grinning as she picked up the Slate from the pedestal to get a closer look. Before she could, though, the voice she’d continually been hearing rang out yet again. 

_ ‘Robin… ‘ _

Whirling back around, Robin’s focus was directed to the castle she had seen from the cliff. She could make out a light glowing from its center. Robin cautiously took a few steps towards the edge of the spire to try and get a better look. 

_ ‘Try to remember, Robin. Please…’  _

Robin’s brow furrowed. What did she need to remember? Yes, she knew she couldn’t remember anything before she woke up in the pod, but was there something crucial she was forgetting?

_ ‘You’ve… You’ve been asleep for a hundred years, Robin.’  _

A gasp cut through the air. After a moment, she realized that it was hers. Robin couldn’t concentrate on that realization, though, as the ground trembled under her feet again. A black cloud started to billow out around the castle, taking the form of a dragon as it flew around the towers visible on the horizon. An ear-piercing roar rang out. Robin winced, the motion hurting her head even more. She did not appreciate that, no sir. 

_ ‘When this  _ **_monster_ ** _ regains its full power, the world will be brought to ruin. I know how you hate to be rushed, but… Robin, please hurry.’  _

The monster let out another shriek as the light grew larger, before disappearing above the castle’s highest spire. Robin  _ knew _ , though, that it would be back. Not only did the voice’s words put a sense of urgency to her task, but in the back of her mind Robin knew that if that entity surrounding the castle wasn’t stopped… It would spell the end of the world as she knew it. As  _ everyone _ knew it. 

Shaking her head and looking away from the castle, Robin turned to focus on the… Was it a tower now? She knew it wasn’t on the ground any longer, but did she  _ really _ want to check? The view was just as good as the view from the cliffside earlier that day, if not better, so Robin supposed she had to be  _ fairly _ high up but. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know how high up that was. 

_ ‘You do know you have to get down, right?’ _

Oh shit. Right. 

“How  _ am _ I going to get down?” Robin muttered to herself, hooking the Slate onto her belt. It would be very bad news if she dropped it, absolutely. Turning around, Robin started to look for a convenient way to get down and almost immediately realized that one of the areas surrounded by rails wasn’t clogged with rocks. Maybe that was her way down? Curiously, she walked over and peered over the railing. Almost immediately she jerked back.

“ _ Too high _ .” The laughter she could hear almost made Robin want to reach to her left and smack someone, but there was. There was no one next to her. Well! She would have to get down somehow, and considering there wasn’t a convenient ramp - oh no, that would be  _ too _ convenient for her - Robin would have to climb down the side of the tower. Taking a deep breath, Robin headed to the one part of the opening without the railing, swung herself over the edge, and started to climb down. 

If Robin was being completely honest with herself, the fact that the voice in her head was talking to her the entire time she was climbing down the tower was the only reason she continued to climb. The encouragement as she slowly made her way down, the pieces of advice on where to put a hand or a foot… It was almost as if she had someone watching her back as she climbed down. Despite her evident fear of climbing from the tower - which lessened the further she descended - Robin made it down without incident. She knew without a doubt that the sense of accomplishment she felt wasn’t just her own. And the confusion when the blonde woman from earlier swooped in from out of nowhere was  _ definitely _ shared. 

“Hello there!” she called out, folding up the object she was using to glide down. Robin wanted - no, she  _ needed _ to know what was going on.

“How did you do that?” Robin asked before the woman could even speak. Even as there was a feeling of alarm - not her own, yet again - the woman only chuckled. 

“I should have known that you would ask,” she said, snapping the object closed and storing it in her bag - were everyone’s bags larger than they looked here? Before Robin could ask, the woman spoke again.

“I do hate answering a question with a question, but I do have to ask… This tower, and many others like it across the land have appeared so suddenly… Almost as if a long-dormant power has awoken from its slumber,” she continued, before fixing Robin with a look. She couldn’t tell what kind, as the woman’s eyes were obscured, but the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. 

“So, if you don’t mind my asking… While you were atop the tower, did anything odd occur?” Robin’s brow furrowed at the woman’s question. 

“And what does it matter to you, if something odd  _ did _ happen up there?” Robin asked in reply, crossing her arms. The woman only chuckled again. Knowingly. As if she’d known Robin would respond that way… And probably had a feeling what Robin would be doing next. 

_ ‘Is there any harm in telling her, really?’ _

“I heard a voice,” Robin said, slightly irritated. That feeling of amusement returned as the blonde woman straightened up. 

“A voice you say? Did you recognize them?” she asked. This situation was only growing curiouser and curiouser. 

“...No,” Robin replied slowly. It was almost like her answer had been the wrong one almost, from the slight slump the woman made before straightening up as if nothing was wrong. 

“Ah. How unfortunate,” she said. The two were silent for a moment, before the woman turned to face the castle and hummed quietly. Robin glanced at the woman, before following her gaze to look back at the castle and the black and red clouds surrounding it. 

“I assume you have caught sight of the  _ atrocity _ surrounding the castle,” the woman said, with a lot more venom in her voice than Robin would have expected. To be fair, it wasn’t much, but… The fact that there was even a hint of it caught Robin off-guard, though that feeling of shock was amplified. 

“That… That is Grima. A hundred years past, it brought ruin to Hyrule. Its sudden appearance led to so much death and destruction… So many innocents, lost…” The woman bowed her head for a moment, quiet as she clasped her hands together. Robin, too, remained quiet, even as a wave of regret washed over her. 

“For the past century, Hyrule castle has contained that evil… Just barely. It is held there, but it… Grima… Grows in strength each passing day, awaiting the moment it will be released to wreak havoc across the land again,” the woman said. The slight feeling of indignation Robin had felt dimmed as some combination of anger and determination took its place. Goddess, these emotions Robin kept on feeling were going to cause her so much confusion at some point. 

_ ‘Oh! I didn’t mean-’ _

“That moment is likely fast approaching…” The woman effectively cut off the voice in Robin’s head, who scoffed in disbelief. They didn’t say anything further, though, as the blonde woman turned towards Robin. Their eyes locked.

“I hate to pepper you with questions, but I must ask… Do you intend to head to the castle?” 

A moment of silence. Just as it had been when Robin first saw the castle atop that cliff, all she could hear were the birds and the wind as it whistled. 

“I do,” Robin replied, voice quiet. For a moment, Robin felt the need to look to her left, as if there was someone standing there, but she knew no one was there.  _ Why did she feel that way? _

“Ha… I had a feeling you would say that.” She really seemed like she knew Robin quite well… Perhaps she knew something about-

“Here on the Great Plateau, we are surrounded by steep cliffs with no real way down. If you tried to climb, you would surely fall to your death… Although, if you had a paraglider like mine, getting down would be much easier,” the woman continued. A  _ paraglider! _ That must be what she had used to glide down from wherever she had flown in from. 

“A paraglider… That makes perfect sense!” Robin said excitedly, a grin on her face. The woman smiled as well. 

“I’ve caught your attention now, haven’t I? I’m willing to trade for my paraglider with you,” she said. Robin started to reach for her pack, but the woman put up her hands. 

“Oh no, not with anything you have on you currently. There are four shrines on the plateau, all marked by the orange lights adorning them. There is a treasure inside each of them, and that is what I am willing to trade for the paraglider,” the woman said, turning towards a nearby ridge. Gesturing with one hand, the woman spoke again. 

“Over that ridge one of the four is visible. Come meet me at the top of the tower once you’ve retrieved the first and I can help you locate the other three,” the woman said. Robin nodded. 

“I think I’ll stop by that temple first, though. What you said earlier… It’s been nagging at me,” Robin said. The woman nodded, as if she had been predicting that Robin would say that. That feeling of amusement returned yet again, although it was a bit dimmer. Oh, when Robin said that the other emotions she felt were throwing her off she didn’t mean she wanted them  _ gone! _

_ ‘I’d thought… Ah. I should have remembered.’ _

Remembered  _ what? _ Robin had thought this voice knew her in some capacity, especially since they woke her up  _ and  _ called for her help, but Robin had a feeling that this voice probably knew her better than she knew herself at the moment. Considering how little she  _ did _ know about herself, it wouldn’t be that hard to believe…

_ ‘Weren’t you going to the temple, Robin?’ _

Oh! Right! With a determined nod to herself, Robin started to head towards the ruined temple in the distance, not paying much attention to the woman chuckling behind her. 

* * *

The walk up to the temple itself - which Robin learned was called the Temple of Time from her map - was mostly monster-free. A fact that Robin was very thankful for, especially since she wasn’t sure if the tumble she had taken when the spire - Great Plateau Tower, according to her map - rose to its full height had left any long-lasting damage. She may have an actual sword, but it felt flimsy in her hands. The makeshift shield she had filched after a bokoblin poofed into nothing but a horn and a few teeth was just as flimsy as the sword slung on her back. 

Right at the beginning of the steps up to the temple, where they split off into multiple paths, a bokoblin stood, a club in one clawed hand. Robin let out a quiet huff, and glanced to her left as if someone would be standing there and… No one was. Why did she keep on thinking there was a person that should be right next to her? It was an eerie feeling. Shaking her head slightly, Robin slung both her sword and makeshift shield off her back, attempting to sneak up on the lone bokoblin. Unfortunately, right as Robin was about to start making her way over to it, it noticed her and screeched angrily, waving its club as it started to run towards her. Groaning in exasperation, Robin hefted up her shield to block the club’s first swing and swung her sword in retaliation. A second swing and a stab later, the bokoblin poofed into dust, dropping its club and leaving nothing but a single horn behind. 

“I wonder why they just disappear like this…” Robin muttered to herself as she grabbed the horn and club and attempted to put them in her bag.  _ Attempted _ being the operative word. The horn went in just fine! The club… Not so much. Furrowing her brow, Robin attempted to shove it in, but it resolutely stuck out. 

“Why won’t you… Go in!” Robin said angrily, pushing on the club again. There were snickers in the back of her mind and Robin rolled her eyes, putting more force on the wood. That may have been a mistake, though, as a crack rang out. Robin’s eyes widened as the club spit into two pieces, both falling out of her bag. 

_ ‘I cannot  _ **_believe_ ** _ it, Robin. You just… You broke a club.’ _

Well, in all fairness to Robin, she hadn’t realized that she couldn’t fit anything else in her bag. With a little bit of rummaging, Robin found she had stored an assortment of weaponry including two clubs, a wood-cutting axe, three sticks, two poorly-strung bows, and ten arrows all inside her pack. Nodding to herself, Robin made a note to get  _ rid _ of any weapons before she tried to shove another into her bag. Except the axe, probably. It would be good to have a wood-cutting axe handy. 

Mentally leaving a note to check out the ruins to her right, Robin started up the staircase on the left, taking care not to trip over any too-broken steps. A second bokoblin waited in the ruins at the top of the first staircase. Ducking around the edge of the crumbling wall, Robin dug through her bag to grab one of the sticks she  _ knew _ was in there. Once she had a good grip on one, she waited for the bokoblin to pass by the remnants of the doorway and threw the stick like one would a javelin. 

Despite the drag from the smaller branches sprouting off the stick, it did fly pretty aerodynamically. Making a mental note as the bokoblin squawked indignantly and brandished its club, Robin pulled her sword from its sheath again. Three solid strikes, and the bokoblin disintegrated into a puff of smoke. Scooping up the two horns and single tooth that remained, Robin scanned the small ruin and almost immediately spotted the chest sitting below the ruined window. It might’ve been stained glass at one point, but none of the glass remained. Regardless of the window, Robin wanted to know what was in the chest, which contained… 

“Oh  _ fantastic, _ I’ll have trousers that aren’t threadbare and don’t cover most of my calves,” Robin said, pulling out the pair of trousers. A pair of sturdier boots followed, which Robin quickly slipped on in favor of the ill-fitting shoes she currently wore. When she could find a private spot to put on the better trousers, she would. Shoes were one thing to change in the open, trousers were another. 

_ ‘Perfectly understandable.’ _

Absolutely understandable!

Either way, her journey up the steps to explore continued. Avoiding most of the other external buildings, Robin continued to carefully make her way up the partially-ruined stairs. She wondered what could have caused such devastation, although time could have played a significant factor in the wear and tear. But if what she had learned so far was true… It was probably related to that “Grima” she had been told about.

The stairs leading up to the entrance to the temple itself were covered in dirt and rocks, which Robin dutifully avoided. The decaying statues scattered around the temple, however…. Those were almost lurking above her as she walked. The way they were scattered about was almost corpse-like, she thought. Shaking her head to dispel the wayward thoughts, Robin grabbed her sword from its sheath again and swiftly dispatched the bokoblin wandering around in front of the temple entrance. Score. Looking up, her eyes almost immediately landed on the statue across the temple proper.

“Who…” Robin trailed off, squinting slightly at the worn-down statue. She had no clue who the statue was meant to portray, but she could probably find out. Glancing around, Robin resisted the urge to shatter the pots scattered around the temple ruins. Ignoring the amusement she felt in the back of her mind, she approached the statue with a sense of caution. 

“Who are you,” Robin murmured, reaching forward to brush some of the moss off. As her fingertips met the stone, Robin felt a sense of vitality for a brief moment. The moment her hand left the statue, the energy left as well. Huh. Odd. It could have been a coincidence, Robin thought, but as she turned to walk away, there was almost this feeling of a benevolent presence watching over her. 

* * *

Surprisingly, the walk to the shrine sitting near the tower was a peaceful affair. No monsters popping up out of nowhere, no people dropping in from the sky, no rocks falling and knocking her out… A fantastic walk, in Robin’s opinion. 

The shrine she stood before, though, mystified her. There was the impression of a door with lines crossing over it, not unlike the doors in the artificial cave she woke in. A pedestal similar to the tower’s was to the right of the door, an eye clearly emblazoned on it. Narrowing her eyes, Robin took the Slate off her belt and lifted it to the eye’s iris, feeling very satisfied when the orange lights changed to blue. 

“Sheikah Slate confirmed.” The voice from both the cave and the tower made a reappearance as Robin moved to hook the Slate back on her belt. A light flashed blue behind her, and Robin whirled around to see the golden circular pattern light up blue as well. 

“Travel gate registered to map. Access granted,” the voice chimed.  _ Travel gate? Access granted? _ Robin was so confused. A grinding sound had her turning back around to see the door to the shrine folding in, revealing a circular indent in the floor. 

“Where are the stairs?” Robin wondered aloud, stepping onto the indent. It flared up with a blue light, before starting… To sink? Where was she  _ going? _

_ ‘It’ll be fine, Robin.’ _

Easy for the  _ voice _ to say! They weren’t the one going down into the depths of the earth to possibly never return! When they would do the same as she was, then they could talk about not worrying! And now that sense of amusement was back again. Brilliant.

“It’s not funny,” Robin muttered as the blue-lit shaft she was in started to open up. Looking around curiously as she stepped through the blue light surrounding the platform she arrived on, a voice rang out. 

“ _ To you who sets foot in this shrine… I am Oman Au. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial.” _

Hold up. The goddess  _ who?  _ Shaking her head to clear it slightly, Robin noticed a pedestal very similar to the one from the tower. She could wonder about the ramifications of a different voice talking to her about a goddess later, right now she wanted to investigate the pedestal. 

_ ‘Never change, Robin. Never change.’ _

Ignoring that, Robin pulled the Slate off her belt and placed it in the pedestal’s slot. Just as it did at the tower, the pedestal flipped the Slate horizontally, sank into the main pedestal, and the same voice from the tower rang out in the room. 

“Sheikah Slate authenticated. Distilling rune…” Rune? What rune? Did the Slate have extra functionality that she wasn’t aware of? As she thought, blue light collected at the tip of the pillar above the pedestal, dropping onto the Slate with a splatter. A new screen appeared on the Slate, displaying six squares, five of which were greyed out. The third in the line, however, filled itself in with blue and a red u-shaped object.  _ A magnet _ , her brain filled in almost automatically, although she wasn’t sure why she  _ knew _ that. 

“Rune extracted,” the voice said as the pedestal rose back up, flipping up the Slate again which Robin quickly grabbed. Turning away as the pedestal sunk back into itself, Robin tapped the magnet button on the screen. The screen turned red, and as Robin peered closer, she realized it was a view of the room tinged in red. The large metal slabs in the middle of the room were tinted red, though. Tapping on the slab on the screen, Robin nearly dropped the Slate when a magnet made of light materialized around the Slate as she held it. Strands of light shot out from the ends of the magnet and almost latched onto the metal. On the screen, it turned yellow, and as Robin moved the slab - and Slate, by proxy - around, it moved on-screen as well. Huh. 

Moving the slab of metal revealed a hole in the floor, which Robin felt would lead her to the area currently barred to her - quite literally. Robin tapped on the screen as she placed the metal on the floor, causing both the light and the magnet to disappear. The screen turned a red tint again, but Robin pressed one of the buttons on the Slate’s side, making the screen disappear. She’d have to play around with that in the future. 

Heading down the ladder she’d found and walking through the passageway revealed yet another puzzle for Robin to solve, with a series of blocks preventing her from heading into the next portion of the room. Taking the Slate off her belt yet again, she pulled up the magnet rune, knocking aside the stone blocks with the metal one among them. As the blocks flew aside, a curious contraption revealed itself, one that looked remarkably like the corpse-like statues around the temple. As she took a step forward, the contraption lit up with a blue light, before scuttling towards her on its three spidery legs. As she tilted her head, circles of blue light started to form around the “eye” in the center of its “head.”

_ ‘Robin  _ **_move!_ ** _ ’ _

With a speed she didn’t know she possessed, Robin ducked behind one of the blocks as the contraption… Fired something? A blue beam of light left its eye, exploding as it made contact with one of the stone blocks. There was no damage to the cube, but Robin shuddered at what it would have done to her. Glancing around, Robin spotted a second metal block. Thinking quickly, Robin picked up the block with her magnet rune, moved out from behind the stone block, and maneuvered the metal block above the contraption, letting go when she was sure it would connect.

“Yes!” Robin cheered quietly as a loud clang echoed through the room, followed by a burst of blue light and an explosion, with pieces of metal flying everywhere. Moving slightly to avoid a small piece of debris, Robin approached the few metallic bits left - a spring of some sort and a large screw - and shoved them into her bag. She might need them some day, who knew? 

The rest of the room presented no challenge to her - just moving one slab to get from one platform to another and opening a door to the final room. She spotted a chest atop a ledge near the door that she grabbed, which had yet another bow inside. Thankfully it fit inside her bag - she didn’t want any repeats of the club situation. 

Behind the metal doors was another platform, this time containing a… Person? That was a person behind that blue light! Oh goddess how did they  _ get there? _ Did they need help? Robin nearly tripped as she ran forward, reaching out to try and break through the blue light. The same damnable eye that kept on showing up appeared the moment she touched the light, shattering it into thousands of pieces that disappeared seconds later. Robin’s hands flew up to protect her face on reflex, though they fell back down when nothing physically hit her. 

_ “You have proven to possess the resolve of a true hero,” _ the voice from the beginning of the shrine spoke. Presumably, the voice belonged to the skeletal person sitting on the pedestal that had been inside the blue barrier. How did her solving a few  _ very easy puzzles _ prove she had the spirit of a hero? 

_ “I am Oman Au, the creator of this trial.” _ Ah. Like that explained  _ everything. _

_ “I am a humble monk, blessed with the sight of Goddess Hylia and dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Grima,” _ the monk continued. Now that. That was a better explanation. And considering that Robin had resolved to go to the castle to fight this “Grima” character, the more help she could get the better. 

_ “With your arrival, my duty is now fulfilled.” _ Duty? What did they  _ mean,  _ duty? All this monk person had done was sit around for some unspecified amount of time, and now they were calling her a “hero” like she had completed a great feat. The puzzles she had gone through weren’t any great feat, just basic logic! If their “duty” was to wait for Robin to solve those laughably easy puzzles, then it wasn’t much of a duty, she thought. 

_ “In the name of Goddess Hylia, allow me to bestow this gift upon you,” _ the monk said. What… Kind of gift? Robin was starting to get a bit nervous. Something was telling her that she was not going to like the outcome of this. 

_ “Please accept this Spirit Orb.” _ Spirit Orb? What was a-

Robin’s thoughts were cut off when a bright light appeared on the monk’s abdomen, shooting out into a bright purple sphere of light. A crest that Robin felt she should recognize was emblazoned in the middle, and as the sphere came towards her, it started to shrink. Robin flinched, attempting to put her hands up to prevent the sphere from touching her, but it bypassed Robin’s hands quite easily and landed on her chest. As it connected, the sphere dissolved into light that sunk into Robin’s body. She felt the feeling of vitality not unlike when she touched the statue in the temple as she reached to touch where the sphere had been. 

_ ‘Wh-’ _

_ “May the Goddess smile upon you.”  _ As the monk said those words, they started to dissolve into green light. 

“Wait!” Robin cried, reaching forward as the last remnants of the monk faded into nothingness. Her hand reached thin air as her eyes started to water. This monk, someone that had been in here for who knows  _ how long _ had given theirself up for Robin’s sake, all for what? 

That thought was all Robin focused on as she made her way out of the shrine and headed back up on the rising platform. If that was what would happen in the other shrines… Robin wasn’t sure she wanted to go. But that blonde woman had promised a trade, and if Robin ever wanted to get off the Great Plateau, she needed that paraglider. 

With renewed determination as she reached the surface yet again, Robin started towards the tower. The blonde woman  _ had _ said she would be up there after Robin left this shrine, after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hello i have [tumblr,](http://nerdiests.tumblr.com/) _please_ come talk to me about fire emblem


	3. shrine time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin has three more shrines to tackle on the plateau. She _will_ be leaving and she _will_ be getting that paraglider. It might take a bit, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whooooooo boy i'm sorry that this is a little late based on my self-imposed schedule, but i wanted to do something i've never actually managed to do - get a chapter of something i've been working on out on my birthday! which i have managed, because today! is my birthday! so as a birthday gift, y'all get a new chapter, hehe! 
> 
> many thanks to my friends who listened to me blather on about this and the friends that helped me with editing purposes - you know who you are and i love you
> 
> without further ado, chapter three! :D

Surprisingly, the climb back up the tower was much less nerve-wracking than the climb down. Probably because Robin was looking  _ up _ , not down. Yet again, encouragement from the voice she’d continued to hear kept her moving. Either way, Robin reached the top of the tower much faster than she had descended it the first time. Goodness, she really hoped that descending the tower would be much easier the second time around. 

As she had told Robin, the blonde woman from earlier was waiting atop the tower. She stood near one of the pillars holding up the roof, flipping through the book with the odd symbol on its cover. At the sound of Robin’s footsteps, she snapped the book shut and turned around, a pleasant smile on her face. 

“Ah, you’ve gotten your hands on a Spirit Orb! Fantastic job,” she said, absentmindedly slipping her book into her pack. Robin quirked an eyebrow curiously. 

“And how did you know they were called Spirit Orbs? You called them “treasures” earlier,” Robin replied, her hands moving to rest at her sides. She tilted her wrists slightly, though, as if they were inside a coat or something of the like. Odd… Maybe she liked to wear coats?

“Clairvoyance, of course!” Robin blinked at the woman’s quite unexpected answer. Was that… Was that even possible?

_ ‘It isn’t.’ _

Why thank you. As Robin stood there in confusion, the blonde woman laughed. 

“I was just joking with you. But perhaps something similar,” she said, a mysterious look on part of her face. Robin could imagine raised eyebrows with eyes lit up in amusement, but she wasn’t sure why. She felt like she knew this woman, but… If a hundred years had passed, how could she?

“It becomes easier to see things that have been hidden from your view previously as you grow older. Take care to remember that,” the blonde woman said. Robin’s brow furrowed, but she filed it away after a moment’s consideration. Did the woman mean wisdom? That seemed to be what she was implying…

“The appearance of those towers and awakening of the shrines… All of it is connected to the Sheikah Slate at your hip,” she continued. Robin’s brow only furrowed further in her confusion. It did make sense, but why was  _ she _ the one dealing with this? Why not the blonde woman herself? Or better yet, why not the mysterious voice she kept on hearing,  _ hmm, mysterious voice? _

_ ‘I’d be by your side in a heartbeat, Robin. You know that.’ _

And somehow, she did. Robin didn’t fully understand how she knew, but she did. 

“What do you mean by that? Why me?” Robin asked. The woman chuckled a bit. 

“Mmm… It has been quite a while since I’ve seen the Slate, but I do still remember the story,” the blonde woman said, gesturing towards the shrine on the ground below them. Glancing behind her, Robin noticed that the orange lights she had seen originally had turned blue. Huh! Maybe it was signifying that Robin had completed the task inside?

“Long ago, a highly advanced tribe called the Sheikah inhabited these lands. Their wisdom saved this kingdom time and time again, but… Their technology disappeared from our grasp long ago. Or… That’s how historians wrote it.” Robin’s brow furrowed slightly at the woman’s words. It sounded like this was something she had personally dealt with, but… That didn’t make any sense! 

“It’s interesting to think about how that Spirit Orb survived tucked away in that shrine for so long,” the woman said. Robin’s thoughts flitted to the monk that had dissolved before her eyes. Almost unconsciously, Robin’s hand clenched into a fist. There was the slightest sense of worry in the back of her mind, before understanding nearly overwhelmed her. 

“You mentioned… You mentioned other shrines? On this plateau? Are there more off the plateau?” Robin asked. As she did so, Robin felt like she already knew the answer. 

“Quite perceptive of you, there. I wouldn’t expect less. There are shrines tucked in all sorts of places all over the land - if you look out over the edge of this tower, you can spot some even off the plateau,” the woman replied, gesturing slightly towards the edge of the platform. Curious, Robin took a step forward and started to look about, but a chuckle from behind her caught her attention. 

“Ah, I see you haven’t yet discovered the scope on the Sheikah Slate,” she said, attempting to mask the smile on her face behind a hand. Robin pouted slightly, crossing her arms. It wasn’t  _ funny! _

“There should be a button on the side of the Slate, but once you look through it, you can stick a pin anywhere you’re able to see and it will show up on the Slate’s map,” the woman continued. Robin blinked once, twice. 

“Why did no one tell me about this?” Robin muttered under her breath, snatching the Slate off her belt and running a hand along the side of the Slate in search of the button that the blonde woman had mentioned. Not only could she hear chuckles from the woman, there was uproarious laughter in the back of her mind. 

_ ‘I would have thought you would have noticed!’ _

Well, she  _ hadn’t _ . And the voice could  _ fight her. _ At that thought, the laughter only grew louder. Robin rolled her eyes. As she did, her finger drifted over a button that she pressed down on, and she was immediately treated to an even closer view of the ground. 

“Huh,” Robin said, lifting the Slate up. The dark brown color she had seen changed drastically, showing a closer view of the landscape beyond the tower. Almost immediately, Robin caught a glimpse of an orange light on a mountain-top. Robin reached forward to tap on the shrine to place a pin, and a pillar of light shot up from where her finger touched. Alarmed, Robin looked up from the Slate’s screen to see that there was not, in fact, a pillar of light in front of her currently. Thank goodness. Robin didn’t bother to ask the woman how she’d known about the scope function, considering how many things Robin was already assuming she was being kept from, but she did continue to scan the horizon for more shrines. 

The second and third shrines on the plateau were quite easy to find, and Robin managed to pin a tower in the distance and put one atop the mountains in the distance as a reference point. Robin didn’t know when she would travel that way, but having it there to remind her would be handy. 

_ ‘We may be headed that way sooner than you think.’ _

Oh, shove it. Right now, Robin was on the Great Plateau, and had to acquire three more Spirit Orbs to trade for the paraglider the blonde woman was withholding from her. To be fair, she  _ had _ given Robin a book that belonged to an old friend of hers, but maybe she should have given Robin the paraglider instead of the book. She wasn’t trying to be ungrateful, no! But… How much use would a book give her when that paraglider could get her off this plateau? 

“Ugh,” Robin groaned to herself, turning off the scope and slipping the Slate back onto her belt. For a moment, she stood there, the wind letting her hair fly freely behind her as she looked at the landscape beyond the plateau. Then she glanced down. 

“Shit.” There was a choked-up sound behind her, and Robin could have  _ sworn _ that the blonde woman was attempting to cover up her laughter. 

“I didn’t think about how I was going to get back down,” Robin continued, stepping away from the edge of the tower. She started to make her way back over to where she had climbed up, but the blonde woman cleared her throat rather pointedly. Robin turned back around, a glint in her eyes. If she was going to chastise Robin for her language, then she would have a hard time. Robin was an  _ adult _ , she could swear if she wanted to! 

_ ‘I mean, you were almost twenty before everything, so you’re more than an adult now. You’re over a hundred!’ _

Robin rolled her eyes, moving her arm to swat at something to her left and blinking when there wasn’t the sound of her hand hitting someone’s arm. 

“Did you not know about the travelling function the Slate has?” The woman asked. Robin blinked. That is not what she was expecting, but if it was what she suspected, then Robin was about to save  _ so  _ much walking time. 

“No, no I did not. Would you mind enlightening me?” Robin replied. The woman chuckled, before gesturing towards where the Slate sat on her hip. 

“When you look at your map, there are blue icons present - three, currently. The cave where you woke, the shrine you came from, and the tower. You should be able to instantaneously travel to any place that registers itself in a similar manner, from what I know,” the woman continued. Robin hummed to herself, before perking up. 

“ _ That’s _ what the voice at the shrine meant when it mentioned a travel gate!” Robin exclaimed, grinning as she took the Slate from her hip and fiddled with the controls to get the map to zoom in further. The woman tilted her head curiously, but didn’t ask what Robin meant. 

“I have a cabin in the birch forest to the southwest, if you would like to come visit,” the woman offered, before slipping her book into her bag and pulling out her paraglider. With a one handed wave, the woman leapt off the edge, unfurling the paraglider as she started to fall. Robin reached out one arm, taking a few steps forward, but when she started looking, the woman had disappeared. Odd… Shaking her head, Robin pulled up her map and tapped on the blue icon near the center of the plateau. A few words popped up, and Robin’s brow furrowed. 

“Shrine of Resurrection?” Robin murmured, looking at the prompt to start the travel sequence. Why was it called the Shrine of  _ Resurrection? _ Had she…? 

Robin shook her head. Not something she wanted to think about. Without a second thought, Robin tapped the “travel” icon and as the blue light started to envelop her, Robin could have sworn she felt a tingling sensation. 

* * *

Robin walked out of the Shrine of Resurrection not even a few minutes later, a determined set to her face. She knew where the other three shrines were on the plateau and she was going to  _ find them _ . Pulling her Slate off her hip again, Robin glanced down at the map and scrolled the screen over to the pin closest to the Temple of Time, based on her judgment. It could be good to walk there but… Robin glanced up at the slowly darkening sky with an assessing eye. It would probably be best to sit down and eat something before resting, at this rate. And as much as taking shelter in the place she woke sounded unappealing, she realized it would be much easier than sheltering any place else. 

_ ‘There’s always the top of the tower?’ _

“ _ No _ , I’ll freeze up there! And I could roll off, considering whoever designed the towers in the first place thought that a lack of safety rails was perfectly appropriate!” Robin replied, throwing her arms up as she ducked back into the cave housing the shrine. She heard a chuckle, before feeling more than a little shock that definitely wasn’t hers.

_ ‘Wait a moment… Robin, you haven’t said a word to me until now!’ _ the voice cried, and Robin could imagine someone throwing their arms up just as she had. Shrugging her shoulders as she climbed down the small ledge in the shrine, Robin spoke again.

“Well who’s to say I am, hmm?” she replied, reaching for her bag the moment her feet touched the rocky ground. As she started for the room with the slope - curling up near the ramp sounded like a lovely idea right then - Robin paused. 

“Wait. Why am I even saying anything, you’re just a voice in my head!” 

_ ‘Now that’s rude, I thought we were friends!’ _

“I hardly know you, whoever you are!”

_ ‘Not important right now, the matter of our apparently  _ **_nonexistent_ ** _ friendship is!!’ _

“How can I be friends with someone I hardly know, no matter how well you seem to know me?” Robin said, setting her bag near the ramp. There wasn’t a response from the voice, so Robin assumed they were either not talking to her or pondering what she’d told them. Either way, Robin took the opportunity to put on the new pair of trousers she’d found and munch on an apple she’d picked earlier. 

“If only I’d thought to get some wood for a fire,” Robin muttered, considering the mushrooms and herbs she had picked sitting in her pack. Oh well. She could always roast mushrooms the next morning over a campfire. There was one near the shrine, if she remembered correctly. 

_ ‘Under the outcropping down the hill,’ _ the voice provided. Robin nodded idly, continuing to eat her apple. 

The Shrine was filled with silence, the only sound being the crunch of each bite of the apple Robin took. The sounds of the night were muted from her spot nestled next to the ramp in the hallway, so the crickets she knew were outside couldn’t be heard. Quietly, she wished there was at least the crackling of a fire, because that at least meant she could have more than an apple for dinner. Who would’ve thought that being in some sort of sleep for a hundred years would leave you feeling hungry?

Eventually, Robin’s apple was polished off and the core was tossed away to consider later. Grabbing her bag, Robin curled up on the floor of the shrine and laid her head on her bag. It was lumpy, but it would be a better pillow than her arms or the ground. With a sigh, Robin looked at the ceiling and followed the patterns of soft blue light until her eyes fluttered shut. 

She was not, however, expecting to open her eyes not even moments later. In a different place from where she started nonetheless. 

“Odd,” Robin said, looking around where she… Sat? Robin had been laying down not even moments prior, she was not expecting to be seated at a table, of all places. Light shone in through a high window, illuminating the room she was in. Books surrounded her, making some sort of shelter for her table, covered in papers and even more books. Why did she wake up in a library when she fell asleep in the Shrine of Resurrection? It didn’t make sense… Oh. Oh it was probably a dream. 

“Maybe I can read some of these,” Robin said to herself, picking up one of the papers scattered across the table. Not surprisingly, Robin could read absolutely none of it. She hadn’t thought she would be able to, but it never hurt to try. Humming to herself as she stood up from her table, Robin tucked her chair back under the table and started to head through the stacks. 

As Robin walked, it felt like the shelves continued on forever, stretching on and on. She ran her fingertips along the edge of the book’s spines as she walked, brushing off bits of dust occasionally. How unused was this library, she wondered. Was she the first to grace its halls after a long period of disuse, or were these books just that uninteresting?

“-in!”

A sound caught her attention. Whirling around, Robin stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to see over the shelves. In that moment, Robin felt like the bookshelves stretched higher and higher. For all she knew, they were. Dreams weren’t beholden to the laws of reality, after all. 

“Robin!” Oh. That was her name. Who was looking for her? Robin continued to look around, trying to find who was calling out for her. The lack of gaps in the shelves did not help with matters. 

“Robin, where are you?” The owner of the voice seemed closer now. She could hear footsteps, and Robin started towards the footsteps herself, hoping to see who was calling out for her. Walking turned to jogging turned to running, and soon Robin was nearly sprinting down the aisle between the towering bookshelves in pursuit of the footsteps she heard. 

“I’m here!” she called out, miraculously not out of breath. The footsteps stopped, just a bit ahead of her. A hand appeared, and Robin paused for a moment. Had that gap in the shelves always been there?

“Oh thank the goddess, I’ve been looking for you  _ everywhere! _ ” The owner of the voice said, and right as they started to come through the gap in the shelves, Robin’s eyes flew open. A word was on the tip of her tongue, but as she came back to awareness, it disappeared. 

“That was an odd dream…” Robin said, sitting up and stretching. Her back  _ hurt _ . New idea for later - don’t sleep on rock floors again.

_ ‘There are better places to sleep than the ground,’ _ the voice commented, chuckling as they did so. Robin pouted slightly. Well she  _ knew _ that, but did she have much of a choice? No. Throwing off the comment from the voice, Robin picked up her bag from the floor and stood up, stretching more as she did so. She would either need to get a bedroll or just avoid sleeping on the ground directly. 

“Hm… I think that shrine I saw to the east should be the first goal,” Robin said, mostly to herself. She heard a hum, and yet again started to turn to her left only to remember she was alone. It was so eerie, she thought, to constantly have the impression that someone was next to you and still be alone. 

Shaking her head to clear it, Robin slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way out of the shrine. 

* * *

Relighting the campfire she had seen the blonde woman using yesterday was an easy task, considering the flint left nearby it. Her breakfast of roast mushrooms and a baked apple never felt more filling, although the lack of salt left something to be desired… Either way, after polishing off breakfast, Robin looked down at the map and hummed to herself. 

“If I cut through the courtyard in front of the Temple of Time, I would be able to reach the… Eastern Abbey? The shrine. I could reach the shrine faster,” Robin said, tracing her possible path with one finger. After a moment of thought, though, she magnified the map and glanced at her possible path. What looked like a broken bridge made the idea less viable and with a groan, Robin realized she would have to take the long way around. Around the Temple and across the ruined cobbles it was. Nodding to herself, Robin started her journey over to the second shrine, a spring in her step. If only at the prospect of getting one step closer to getting off the plateau, at any rate. 

Her walk to the Eastern Abbey was, surprisingly, much longer than she had thought it would be. Who would’ve  _ thought _ that walking halfway across a fairly large plateau would take nearly three and a half hours? Robin… Probably should have. Either way, she was standing on the hill overlooking the ruins. More of the decaying statues were scattered around the Abbey, giving the ruins more of a decrepit look. 

“More of these, huh?” Robin asked herself, slowly making her way down the slope and over to one of the gaps in the broken wall. Peering around, Robin saw yet another one of the statues and breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing would be attacking her now, for certain. She stepped out from behind the wall and took a few steps forward, but froze in place when the statue… Started to move? Statues weren’t supposed to move, or light up red or… Point a red light at you?

_ ‘Robin,  _ **_move!_ ** _ ’ _

In a burst of speed, Robin dashed for the crumbling wall to the left, nearly falling over when she skidded to a stop. The sigh of relief was nearly overwhelmed by her heaving breaths, attempting to get more air in her system. 

“What… was that?” Robin said, her words inaudible between her breathing. The glance to her left yielded nothing but another wall. Carefully, carefully, Robin snuck across the gap in the wall and around a piece that jutted out. Peering around the end of the wall yet again, Robin watched as the head of the not-statue swiveled around. The moment its back turned, Robin ran out before breaking into a sprint as she made a break for the wall. Luckily, the not-statue didn’t turn back around, and there she stood behind the safety of the wall, hands on her knees as she took deep breaths. 

_ ‘A guardian.’ _ Robin blinked. If it was a guardian, what was it supposed to be guarding? Seemed more like it was ready to harm anything and everything that came near it. Ducking around the other piece of the jutting wall, Robin came face to face with a moss covered wall. No gaps. The top of the shrine jutted out from above the wall, and Robin groaned. 

“Ugh, I’ll have to climb it,” she muttered, assessing the state of the wall. It’d be a bit of a mad scramble to get up, but there were a few spots where the stone had chipped. It’d be a breeze getting over, she thought, though her fingers would not be thanking her later. 

With a not-so-quick climb, Robin breathed a sigh of relief as her feet touched down on the ground on the other side of the wall. The shrine glowed with an orange light next to her, and Robin took the Slate off her belt, placing it screen-down on the pedestal. Just as before, the shrine opened and Robin stepped inside, holding out her arms to steady herself as the platform below her feet started to descend. 

“Should be a breeze, if the other shrine was any indication,” Robin said to herself. There was a hum of affirmation as the room started to open back up from the tube that the platform descended through. Stepping out, Robin barely flinched as a voice achingly familiar echoed throughout the room. 

_ “To you who sets foot in this shrine… I am Ja Baij. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial.” _ Yet another monk, Robin supposed, shaking her head slightly as she made her way over to the familiar pedestal to the left. She could worry about the rocks covering the obvious doorway later. 

The process of acquiring another rune - technically two, in this case - was much the same as the first, and Robin walked away with the ability to use both circular and square bombs. Oh the  _ capabilities _ she had! With a grin, Robin tapped away at the Slate, managing to produce both a square and circular bomb at the same time, after setting down the first. With another tap, the square bomb disappeared into thin air - possibly they were a creation by the Slate itself? Robin wasn’t totally sure, but she would probably figure out soon enough. Either way. 

Hazarding a glance at the cracked stone blocks in front of her, Robin decidedly tapped the circular bomb with her foot, letting out a relieved breath when the bomb didn’t explode at her gentle kick. It quickly rolled down the ramp in front of her and stopped with a solid ‘thunk’ on the stone. Robin nodded to herself, satisfied. The bomb was in place, she just needed to figure out how to… Aha!

The moment Robin tapped the button she figured would detonate the bomb, there was an explosion of blue light and the stone broke into pieces, the rubble shattering into dust when it hit the floor. Huh. Must not be very sturdy stone, Robin thought as she went through the now-revealed opening. 

The rest of the shrine was fairly simplistic, in Robin’s opinion. She ended up blowing up more walls - finding a chest with a claymore in it in the process - placed a bomb on a floating platform and timed the explosion so it would get rid of the cracked stone blocking her way to the final room. In said room, she made use of some moving pieces of stone to launch bombs across the room, and contemplated the purpose of the orb sailing between two of the pieces of moving stone. It wasn’t  _ doing _ anything, why would they put the orb in the shrine if it didn’t have a purpose?

_ ‘Maybe its purpose is to look cool!’ _

“Oh so they just thought it was neat?  _ Fantastic _ ,” Robin muttered. What a thought. Shaking her head, Robin stepped up to the monk in the shrine, and things proceeded just as the last shrine had. In the end, Robin walked out of the shrine with a second Spirit Orb and access to more explosives than she really knew what to do with. 

* * *

As Robin was making her way over to the next shrine marked by a blue pin, Robin stumbled across the cabin the blonde woman had mentioned. It wasn’t all that hard to find, considering how the birch forest didn’t have much tree cover. The lack of a door was a bit disarming, in Robin’s opinion, considering you couldn’t know what would end up coming  _ through _ the door and that worried her, but that might just be a worry that the blonde woman didn’t have? Considering how worn down the cabin was, it might just be an issue with sturdiness and having a cabin that didn’t hold up under less than ideal conditions, but-

“Oh, you’re here!” Whirling around, Robin came face-to-face with the blonde woman. She could see a smile on her face, but not much else. Blinking and slowly removing her hand from her bag where she had been reaching for one of the swords she knew it held, Robin calmed herself down. 

“Feel free to make yourself at home, I was just finishing up collecting some ingredients for a stew, if you’d like to join me for lunch,” the woman continued, glancing up at the sky for a moment. Robin nodded absentmindedly - it was getting to be around that time. 

“I have a few apples, if you’d like to roast those up for a dessert?” Robin asked in reply. The woman waved a hand. 

“No, no, you should save your food for when you need it. I’ll only be a little bit longer before I get lunch ready anyways, I’d left the meat to cook over the fire so feel free to just take a few moments to yourself. I have a table in my little home here,” the woman said. Robin raised an eyebrow as she turned to the ramshackle house that the woman called home. No door, a slab of suspended wood that passed for a bed, a journal left lying open on the table… Wait a moment. 

Her curiosity got the better of her, as Robin stepped forward to peer at the journal. She knew that she  _ really _ shouldn’t be invading this woman’s privacy like this, but. Maybe she could just look and see what was on the open page?

_ ‘I would really advise against that, actually,’ _ the voice commented. Robin flinched, and as she did, she caught a glimpse of some of the words on the page. Something about a recipe for a spice dish? And being unable to remember one of the ingredients - there were spicy peppers, meat, and something else. Glancing at the top of the page, Robin saw, written in capital letters, SPICY MEAT AND SEAFOOD FRY. Perhaps… Hm. Robin would have to go fishing. 

“The stew is done, my friend!” Robin whirled around, spotting the woman holding two bowls of stew. Had it really taken that much time to skim over a page in her journal? Which she really should  _ not _ have been doing in the first place, honestly. Shaking her head slightly, Robin gave the blonde woman a small smile and took the proffered bowl and spoon, eating her stew quite quickly. Both because she wanted to get away from the woman so she would feel less guilty and because she was a  _ lot _ hungrier than she expected. 

“Where are you headed next?” the woman asked as Robin finished with her stew. She only shrugged in response.

“I think there’s a shrine near here, but it would take a bit of a trek to get there,” Robin replied. The woman glanced over to the spruce trees visible from the open doorway, and Robin followed her gaze.

“Across that gap, if I’m remembering correctly.” the woman muttered. Robin raised an eyebrow. 

“How do you-”

“If you cut a tree down at the right angle, you could go across the fallen trunk to get across the gap,” the woman continued. There was a sputtering sound in the back of her mind as Robin blinked.

_ ‘Don’t you  _ **_dare_ ** _ -’ _

“Sounds like it could work,” Robin replied. The blonde woman laughed, more to herself than anything. 

“Your only issue would be getting up that cliff, I think. It would take a lot of stamina to get up there,” the woman commented. Almost humming to herself, Robin stopped for a moment to consider. 

“If there’s regular places to stop on the cliff, then I should be fine. And if I don’t have to look down,” Robin said, adding her second sentence almost as an afterthought. The woman only nodded. 

“I believe there are. Just take care, I’ve seen bokoblins over there from time to time,” the woman said. Robin gave a nod in reply. 

“Mmm… Thank you for the advice! And the lunch, it was delicious!” Robin said, leaving the spoon inside her bowl and standing up from the table they had both sat at. The woman gave her a jaunty wave as Robin stepped out of the ramshackle cabin, reaching inside of her bag for the axe that she had  _ known _ was a good idea to keep hold of. 

* * *

Getting across the gap to the cliff was a piece of cake - all Robin had to do was chop one of the trees down with a few swings of her woodcutter’s axe, cross the gap on the felled trunk, and not look down as she did so. If she wasn’t thinking about the height that she could be falling from, then she wouldn’t be worried about falling! That was the same principle that she applied as she climbed the cliff she was currently almost at the top of. Just a little bit further and both she and her hands could take a well-deserved break. 

_ ‘You’ve got this, Robin! I believe in you!’ _ Why thank you, you lovely voice, Robin thought to herself as she hauled herself up the last bit of the cliff and just laid on the rock for a moment. The sun shone above her as she caught her breath and stared at the sky. Clouds passed by that had no definite shape, and the wind felt nice on her sweat-covered arms. Who would’ve thought that climbing a cliff would be an exerting activity? 

Groaning quietly as she sat back up, Robin pulled the Slate off her belt to go through the same process from the last shrine, rising platforms and all. At least the time as the platform sank down let her catch her breath a bit more. 

The shrine was  _ extremely _ simple, even if the rune she received was one she couldn’t wrap her head around. The stasis rune allowed her to stop time on a specific object, and if she hit the object as it was frozen she could store kinetic energy in the object to get it to move farther - or at all, in the case of the stone ball she smacked with a sledgehammer. She had stopped a platform from moving by freezing the gear that moved it, stopped a stone ball from crushing her by freezing it in place, and smacked another stone with the sledgehammer that the shrine oh so helpfully provided her. Either way, Robin wasn’t surprised to see the sun was nowhere near setting when she left the shrine. 

By the time she reached the woman’s house again, the sun was near setting, however. The blonde woman, in her endless generosity, not only shared the dinner she had just finished making upon Robin’s arrival, but let her spend the night in her house. She even had a spare bedroll for Robin to borrow, which the woman insisted on her taking the next morning when Robin awoke. In thanks for the bedroll, Robin ended up telling the woman that she might need fish for a dish that had “seafood” in the title. Which led to… The woman giving her another shirt. Oh  _ no _ , no no! She could  _ not _ accept it, but the woman would not hear no. So, Robin walked away that next morning with a bedroll and a warm doublet. The woman had mentioned the last shrine being in a colder area, so it would be fairly helpful. 

The veritable  _ hike _ up to the last shrine on the plateau was  _ very  _ long, and even despite the warm doublet she wore atop her threadbare shirt,  _ very _ cold. Robin spent more time swearing to herself than she did walking, and considering it took nearly seven hours to  _ reach _ the shrine from the Resurrection Shrine, that was a considerable chunk of time. 

“It’s fucking  _ cold _ ,” Robin muttered to herself, eating yet another apple and contemplating eating a pepper in the same manner. 

_ ‘Why would you eat a pepper like that? They’re spicy!’ _

“Might warm me up,” Robin replied in a deadpan, finishing up her apple and chucking the core to decompose. She could almost  _ feel _ the recoil in the worry that the voice had as Robin pulled a pepper from her bag to eat raw. Ignoring it, Robin glanced up at the sun - guessing by its height in the sky, it was nearing mid-afternoon. Might as well get the shrine wrapped up before the day fully reached its end, hm? 

Yet again, Robin went through the same process of receiving a rune on the Slate - the fifth of presumably six runes, though if there were only four shrines on the plateau, Robin had no clue where she could get the sixth. Either way, her fifth rune, Cryonis, let her create pillars of ice on any surface with water. She ended up making liberal use of the rune, not only to cross gaps, but also to open gates, as a shield from yet another one of the smaller contraptions - guardians, as Robin had learned - and to move a platform to reach a set of stairs. Easy, in her opinion. 

The conversation with the monk went as the three previous had, and Robin walked out of the shrine with a renewed sense of determination. All she had to do was get back to the woman’s house and give her the Orbs so she could have the paraglider. Almost as if the thought had summoned her, Robin heard the blonde woman’s voice from nearby. 

“Hello down there!” the woman called as she glided in from… Nowhere in particular, actually. Robin blinked as the woman landed and folded up the paraglider. 

“With this last shrine, you’ve acquired all the Spirit Orbs from the four shrines located on the plateau,” the woman said. Robin nodded. Yes, yes she had. And that meant… The paraglider, yes? Robin’s breath puffed out in front of her in the cold air as she opened her mouth to ask the question, but the blonde woman cut her off. 

“Extraordinary… Just as I had expected. Which means it is finally time.” Robin furrowed her brow at the cryptic wording. What did this woman have to tell her? It wasn’t as if she had been there when Robin was alive a century prior, right?

“Robin, it is finally time for me to tell you everything. But first… A riddle, for you,” the woman continued, turning around and gesturing towards the rest of the plateau. 

“Imagine an ‘X’ on your map, with each of the four shrines as end points. Find the spot where those lines intersect. I will wait for you there,” she said, turning back around. The woman’s lips twitched up into a smile, though it looked almost… sad. What caught Robin off-guard, however, was when a turquoise fire started to engulf the woman and she stood there, calm as could be. 

“Do you understand, Robin? Where two lines connecting the shrines would cross…” the woman said, as the fire crept up her arms and she started to disappear. Robin reached out, starting to move forward.

“There… I will… be waiting…” The woman’s disappearance as the flames dissipated cut off her final words, letting them ring atop the mountain Robin stood on. One of her hands still was outstretched in front of her. What… What had just happened?

“Two lines,” Robin muttered, attempting to ground herself with the riddle the woman had provided before disappearing. Dying? No… Robin knew, somehow, that the woman hadn’t died. But she was still gone, in some way. Shaking her head slightly, Robin pulled her Slate off her hip and pulled up the map, staring for a few moments before coming to a realization. 

“The Temple of Time!” Robin exclaimed, turning to look at the towers of the temple from the mountaintop. It seemed the Temple of Time would be her final destination on the plateau, then. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey lads come check out my [tumblr!!](http://nerdiests.tumblr.com) got some cool stuff, if i do say so myself :3


	4. the truth, and all that comes with it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a tale to be told, and some truths to be learned. Robin will hear them, whether she likes them or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has been.... quick glance at the calendar.... four months, criminy. whoops! did not mean for it to take this long, but late is better than never! it just took me a bit to get motivation to write for this again - i started hyperfixating on star wars and my motivation to write fire emblem left and didn't come back until last week, but! the chapter is here! 
> 
> this chapter's dedicated to my lovely, lovely friend silona - i said i'd get this out before your birthday, and. i did not. but hey, three months late is better than not at all! (i am sorry about the delay)
> 
> now, i hope y'all enjoy the chapter - it took a while, but. it's here. to read. yeehaw! enjoy!

There was a notable difference in the air, Robin thought, as she walked into the Temple of Time for the second time since she’d awoken. It felt heavier, almost. Like there was an electric charge weighing the air down, keeping her on her toes. She looked around, curious, trying to find the difference. Almost unconsciously, Robin drifted across the temple, getting closer and closer to the centerpiece of the temple - the large statue she had investigated last time. The foreboding feeling in the air only increased the closer she got to the statue. Odd… 

“What does this statue have to do with anything?” Robin wondered aloud, turning to her left almost absentmindedly. Then she shook her head. There wasn’t anyone else with her! Why did she keep on turning to look for someone she knew wasn’t there? Robin disregarded the thought in favor of getting closer to the statue. The blonde woman - wherever she had disappeared to in this temple - had promised Robin answers, and Robin would be _getting them_. 

_‘Didn’t something odd happen last time you touched the statue, Robin?’_ the voice commented. Ah. Yes. There had been a strange feeling when she had touched the statue earlier. Perhaps if she… Hm. With a curious glint in her eyes, Robin reached forward, fingertips brushing against the stone statue. 

Light burst into existence in front of her, and as Robin blinked the spots out of her eyes, she looked up at the worn face of the statue as light glimmered in from somewhere Robin couldn’t place. It had an almost ethereal quality. Robin was snapped out of her musings by a voice that wasn’t the one she had been hearing. 

_“You who have conquered the shrines and claimed their Spirit Orbs. I can offer you great power.”_ Robin paused, brow furrowing. What kind of power would this unfamiliar voice be offering? And what would drive her to accept it? If it was the other voice she heard telling her this, she would be less hesitant, but this voice was an unfamiliar one. 

_‘Aw, Robin, you trust me,’_ the voice said. Robin could _see_ the grin in her mind’s eye, and she rolled her eyes in response. 

“You’ve been with me since I woke up, of course I do,” she replied, before looking back up at the statue with a skeptical eye. _Alright, statue_ , Robin thought, _try to convince me_. 

_“It appears you have claimed four Spirit Orbs. In exchange for four Spirit Orbs, I will amplify your being. So tell me what it is you desire: I can increase your resilience or your stamina,”_ the unfamiliar voice continued. Without hesitation, Robin replied. 

“Stamina, if you would,” she said. There was an inquisitive noise from the more familiar voice as the unfamiliar one spoke again.

_“I shall grant the power you seek.”_ Another burst of light had Robin shutting her eyes. When she opened them, a gold and green light was settling in front of her chest as the Spirit Orbs had. Blinking, Robin felt as if she had received a burst of vitality. As if her overall energy had increased. 

_“Go, and bring peace to Hyrule…”_ The unfamiliar voice broke Robin out of her musing. She blinked once, and before her eyes the ethereal light disappeared. 

“I feel… Stronger, almost,” Robin muttered to herself, clenching one hand into a fist. 

_‘That’s because you are,’_ the other, familiar, voice replied. Robin laughed, although her laughter was abruptly cut off by a call from a familiar voice above her. 

“Ah, the blessing of the Goddess has made you that much more resilient,” the blonde woman remarked from her place atop the temple’s roof, still wreathed in that blue-green light from before. Robin gasped, whirling around and looking up. 

“Here I am… Now come up here, quickly!” she continued, before turning and walking away, the blue-green flames trailing after her. Robin blinked. 

“How am I going to get up there?” she asked, mostly to herself. 

_‘You could climb the wall outside?’_ the voice replied. 

“ _No._ ” At Robin’s quick - and rather abrupt - reply, the voice started laughing. Robin only rolled her eyes. 

“There’s an edge to the roof, and I’d probably lose my grip and fall. I’d rather use a ladder,” Robin replied, making her way to the opening in the wall to her right. Too bad that the staircase that probably existed got wiped out. Even without the wear and tear from the supposed hundred years she had been asleep - had it _been_ sleep? - the temple was already quite old. It might have been falling apart even before Grima appeared. 

Shaking her head, Robin stepped over the rubble and took a right, hoping to find an easier way up at the back of the temple. Surprisingly, though… 

“Huh. There _is_ a ladder,” she said, giving the ladder a closer look. It appeared to be attached to the temple itself, and with a tug to one of the rungs her suspicion was confirmed. Sturdy. Well, that was good. Nodding to herself, Robin started her rather quick climb up to the roof. This time, at least, she didn’t require her disembodied companion’s encouragement to climb the ladder to the temple’s roof. She reached the end of the ladder very quickly - much quicker than her last climb had been. 

“Now how am I going to reach that tower,” Robin muttered, staring at the roof with an appraising look. For a moment, Robin considered possibly heading around the back of the temple on the stone edge of the roof to reach the other side of the tower, but decided against that. She could trip and fall, and that would end in her breaking a bone at _least_ , which wouldn’t be ideal in the slightest. 

_‘Maybe try…’_ the voice trailed off, and Robin blinked, confused. What did they mean by just trailing off after- oh. _Oh!_ She could climb up the roof itself and cross it to reach the tower, what a genius thought! She got the impression of a grin as she heaved herself over the stone bordering the roof and started to climb the broken portion of the roof. 

In no time at all - although there were a few splinters narrowly avoided - Robin was carefully pulling herself up the stone rubble at the base of the opening in the tower. The blonde woman, still surrounded by the blue-green fire from earlier, stood waiting, although she didn’t offer Robin a hand up. Odd, considering how kind she had been earlier. Filing that away to consider later, Robin pushed up on the stone, pulling her legs underneath her and standing up in a matter of moments. The blonde woman chuckled, shoulders shaking slightly as she did so. 

“Well done there, my friend,” the woman said, fiddling slightly with the hem of her hood. She was nervous. Robin didn’t really know how she knew, but that seemed to be the case with a lot of things these days. 

“Now, then… I apologize for the deceit, but the time has come to show you who I truly am,” the woman continued. Robin gaped, blinking in disbelief. She had… She had been _lied to?_ Shaking her head, Robin nearly missed the woman’s next words.

“I was Crown Princess Emmeryn Lowell of the Hyrulian royal family. And I was… The last crown princess of Hyrule.” 

_‘Oh, Emm… I’m so sorry.’_

“What do you mean, _was?_ ” Robin asked, ignoring what the voice had said for the moment. This woman… Emmeryn. She was the _crown princess?_ Why was she here? And what did she mean by _was_? Was she dead? Robin didn’t want to consider it, but it could be a legitimate possibility. 

“Hyrule… A kingdom which no longer exists,” Emmeryn continued. The blue-green light started to grow brighter, and Robin shut her eyes before it, covering her face with one hand in case the fire burst out. When she opened them, however, she was greeted by a curious sight. 

Emmeryn looked, for lack of a better word, regal. The green and gold ensemble she wore was elegant, from the cloak draped over her shoulders to the embroidery on the white dress she wore beneath it. The gold headpiece she wore was a bit oddly shaped, but it complimented the rest of her outfit. The blue-green fire did clash slightly with the other shade of green, but it gave her a more ethereal appearance. And the odd mark on her forehead... 

“That mark. It’s on the book you carry,” Robin said, nodding towards Emmeryn’s pack. She nodded. 

“Yes. It is the mark of the royal family - or, one of them. I have it, and so does my brother,” Emmeryn said, before glancing behind her at the castle wreathed in black and purple smoke. 

“Grima was merciless, devastating everything and everyone in its path a century past. That is when my life was taken from me,” Emmeryn paused, looking past Robin for a moment. As if she was looking at someone else. The cry of anguish she heard supported that theory, in her mind. Maybe…

“Since that time, I have remained here, in the form of a spirit.” Well, that answered one of Robin’s questions, but not any of the others. 

“Why didn’t you tell me of this from the beginning? What was stopping you from telling me anything?” Robin asked. Emmeryn turned around, drifting - off the ground, no less! - from her spot towards the broken window frame behind her. 

“I did not think it would be a good idea to overwhelm you while your memory was still fragile, so I assumed the temporary form you saw me in,” Emmeryn said, turning back to Robin for a moment. 

“I apologize for the deception, Robin,” she said. Robin smiled slightly as Emmeryn turned back to the castle. 

“But I think you are ready. Ready to hear the tale of what happened one hundred years ago.” Despite not being able to see her face, Robin had a feeling she couldn’t have named the expression on Emmeryn’s face regardless. Looking through the remnants of one of the ruined windows, Robin watched as the black and purple light surrounding the castle almost _pulsed_. 

“To know Grima’s true form, one must know the story from an age long past,” she said, as the light surrounding the castle coalesced into the head of some form of beast. _A dragon,_ something in the back of her mind whispered. Robin didn’t know how she knew that, but as she had found recently, that happened a _lot_. 

“The Fell Dragon was born into this kingdom, but their transformation into Malice created the horror you see now,” Emmeryn continued, before reaching into her bag and grabbing the book Robin had seen her skimming through. 

“Stories of Grima were passed from generation to generation in the form of legends and fairy tales. Some of them are written in this book here. But there was also… A prophecy.” Robin’s brow furrowed as Emmeryn flipped through a few pages in her book, the rustling of the pages audible even over the wind. It was louder up here, she thought, closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. If she forgot that Emmeryn was a spirit imparting words of wisdom right in front of her, Robin could almost picture sitting on a cliff, writing in a book propped up on her knee with one hand and reaching out to smack someone’s leg with the other. But she didn’t know why. A quiet noise from Emmeryn drew her attention.

“The signs of a resurrection of Grima are clear. And the power to oppose it lies dormant beneath the ground,” Emmeryn read, snapping the book shut as she finished speaking. Instead of slipping it back inside her bag as Robin suspected, Emmeryn tucked it behind her back, grabbing the spine of it with both hands.

“My father decided to heed the prophecy and began excavating large areas of land, without much care for those who lived near the excavation sites. It wasn’t long, though, before several ancient relics were discovered. These relics, the Divine Beasts, were giant machines piloted by warriors.” For a moment, Robin had a wistful smile on her face, though she had no clue why. Maybe she had known one of those warriors?

“We also found the Guardians, an army of mechanical soldiers that fought autonomously,” Emmeryn continued, catching Robin’s attention. Wasn’t…

“There were Guardians at the Eastern Abbey, one of them tried to _kill me,_ ” Robin said, venom in her voice. Emmeryn turned slightly at that.

“Were there? I wasn’t aware of that,” she said, concerned. Robin nodded rapidly.

“I only avoided getting shot with their laser because the voice I’ve been hearing told me to move. And… What they are,” Robin said, belatedly realizing she may have made a mistake by mentioning the voice she’d been hearing. Emmeryn turned fully around at that.

“A… A voice, you say? You mentioned hearing one at the top of the tower, is this the same voice?” At Emmeryn’s prompting, Robin nodded slowly. Emmeryn’s brow furrowed as she murmured something to herself, before shaking her head. 

“We can discuss that in a short while. For now, I’ll return to my tale,” Emmeryn said decisively, turning back to face the castle. 

“Finding the Divine Beasts and Guardians coincided with ancient legends many people repeated throughout Hyrule. Some of which I have written here,” Emmeryn said, her fingers drumming on the cover of the book. 

“We also learned of a royal with a sacred power, and their appointed knight, chosen by the sword that seals the darkness. The two were the ones that sealed Grima away by using the power of these ancient relics.” Robin’s brow furrowed momentarily. A royal? That sounded… Quite familiar, actually. She just didn’t know why.

“A hundred years ago, there was a princess set to inherit a sacred power with many skilled knights at her side, including her younger brother. It was clear that we had to follow our ancestors’ path,” Emmeryn continued, her grip on the book tightening. Robin could see the whitening of her knuckles as she shifted slightly, her cloak drifting in the breeze. 

“We selected four skilled individuals from across Hyrule and tasked them with the duty of piloting the Divine Beasts. With the princess as their commander, the pilots were dubbed Champions - a name that would solidify their unique bond.” Robin’s hands curled into fists as Emmeryn continued to speak. She had a feeling why this was specifically relevant, and she _really_ hoped she wasn’t right about it. 

“The princess, her knights, and the rest of the Champions were on the brink of sealing away Grima… But-” Emmeryn cut herself off, almost as if she didn’t trust herself to speak. This was only further confirming Robin’s suspicions. 

“Grima was cunning, and they responded with a plan beyond our imagining.” Emmeryn paused, collecting herself. “They appeared from deep below Hyrule Castle, seized control of the Guardians and Divine Beasts, and turned them against us.” That… That sounded _awful_. 

“It was.” Oh. She said that out loud.

“The Champions lost their lives. Those in the castle as well,” Emmeryn said, sounding choked up. 

“The princess left one of her knights to guard her younger brother, while the other came with her to confront Grima. The knight guarding her brother was gravely wounded while defending the prince, while the knight with the princess barely escaped Grima’s carnage as she was ordered to flee.” Robin’s head fell as Emmeryn continued to talk. This all sounded _hopeless_. If those who were actively prepared to fight Grima failed, what would that say about Robin now? Even if her suspicions were slowly being confirmed, Robin didn’t want to think about what attempting to fight Grima as she was now would result in. Nothing good, she knew. 

“And thus, the kingdom of Hyrule was devastated absolutely by Grima, the Fell Dragon,” Emmeryn said solemnly, before finally slipping the book into her bag and moving her hands back to her sides. 

“However… The prince survived, to face Grima alone.” _Alone?_ Robin hoped against all hopes that the prince Emmeryn spoke of was _alright_. Even if Robin didn’t know why an anxious pang raced through her heart at the thought of the unnamed prince being harmed. 

“That prince was my younger brother… Chrom.” 

“Chrom,” Robin murmured under her breath, getting a feeling for the name. It felt eerily familiar for her to say. 

“And the courageous knight who protected him right up to the very end…” Emmeryn trailed off, turning around with a solemn expression on her face. It didn’t look right there. 

“That knight was none other than you, Robin.” With that, Robin’s suspicions finally locked into place. _Emmeryn_ was the princess she had talked about. Robin was the knight that had guarded her, and her brother. She had been one of those attempting to fight Grima a hundred years past, and she had _failed_. What did that say about her now?

_‘No! None of that, Robin. This time will go better, I’m sure of it.’_

“How can you be so sure, Chrom?” Robin replied quietly. She blinked. That… 

“You fought valiantly when your fate took an unfortunate turn. Then, you were taken to the Shrine of Resurrection. And now, here you stand, revitalized a hundred years later,” Emmeryn said, cutting off Robin’s train of thought.

“The words of guidance - although likely more than just guidance, knowing him - you have heard since you awoke are from my brother Chrom himself. Even now, as he works to restrain Grima from within Hyrule Castle, he calls for your help,” Emmeryn continued, a bitter smile on her face. 

“Not unexpectedly. The two of you always made for a wonderful team. Chrom’s power, however, will soon be exhausted. And once that happens, Grima will freely regenerate theirself and nothing will stop them from consuming our land.” Robin grimaced at that. She didn’t like the sound of Chrom in trouble. Even if she had a sneaking suspicion that happened more often than she would have liked, the thought made her anxious. Emmeryn’s bitter smile didn’t help matters.

“Considering I could not save my own kingdom, I have _no right_ to ask this of you, Robin…” Emmeryn’s hand curled into a fist, the knuckles whitening at the force of her grip. 

“But I am helpless here. You must save him, Robin. My brother, your friend. And do _whatever it takes_ to annihilate Grima.” At Emmeryn’s words, Robin gave a single, determined nod. She may not remember much, but Emmeryn had helped her, and so had Chrom. If she could help them, she would do everything she could.

“Somehow, Grima has maintained control over all four Divine Beasts, as well as the Guardians swarming Hyrule Castle. It would be extremely reckless to head directly to the castle at this point,” Emmeryn said, turning from Robin to the wooden platform facing east. 

“I suggest heading east, to one of the villages in the wilderness,” Emmeryn continued. Robin walked over to join her as Emmeryn gestured towards the two mountains that looked like one split in half. 

“Follow the road out to Kakariko Village. There you will find Phila, the other of my knights. She will tell you more about the path that lies ahead. Consult the map on your Sheikah Slate for the precise location of Kakariko Village,” Emmeryn said. The blue-green fire around her grew brighter, ash particles floating out as the lighting changed. 

“Make your way past the twin summits of the Dueling Peaks, and follow the road as it heads north,” Emmeryn said, before turning back and reaching into her bag to pull out something.

“Here, the paraglider as promised. With it, you should be able to safely fly off the cliffs surrounding us. And… I think that’s it,” she said, sighing heavily. Robin tilted her head questioningly. Something was up. And Robin was not going to like it. 

“I’ve told you everything I can, Robin. Now... you must… save Hyrule,” As Emmeryn’s voice started to drag out, the blue-green fire flared up, engulfing her in its light as she slowly started to disappear. 

“Wait!” Robin called out, the hand not holding the paraglider - her paraglider, now - stretching out as Emmeryn faded away, the ash flying on the wind as a breeze passed through the glass-less windows. All her hand grabbed was air. Emmeryn was gone. 

Almost in a daze, Robin looked around the tower and catalogued the items inside. She hadn’t done so earlier, which was a mistake on her part. Aside from the gaping hole in the wall, only two of the windows were really lacking much glass, with the three others all - surprisingly - having glass. Where another window would have been was a platform made of wood. There was also a chest, off to the left. Opening it, Robin found a bow - a Knight’s Bow, her mind supplied. She didn’t know why she knew that. Well, she probably knew why she knew that, but she wasn’t totally sure about it. 

_‘Emm... She’s. She’s gone,’_ the voice - no, Chrom (this was going to take her some getting used to, having a name for the voice in her head) - said, and Robin could picture the heartbroken expression on his face. Although… Now, that was a thing, she didn’t know what he looked like. Eventually, she would. Probably. 

“Yeah. She is,” Robin replied, tucking her new bow onto her back and stowing away her old one. This one looked much more durable, and would likely last her longer - and add more power behind her shots as well. 

“Now we just need to figure out how we’re getting off the plateau and to this Kakariko Village,” she continued, looking out the window-hole with the platform towards the two mountains in the near distance. 

“Emmeryn mentioned they were past twin peaks… Two mountains, that’s probably it,” she said, pulling out her slate to both check the direction on her compass and look at the pins in the distance. 

_‘I know the route to Kakariko, but knowing you, you’ll want to figure it out on your own. You’ve always been determined like that,’_ Chrom said, sounding wistful. Robin made a face. 

“Is it odd that you know more about me than I know about me? Or is that just me?” she said. The silence in response to her question spoke for itself. 

“I thought so.”

* * *

After climbing back down - Robin didn’t want to test the paraglider just yet - she made the trek back to Emmeryn’s cabin in the birch forest, though it likely laid uninhabited, now. She didn’t want to think about it. Inhabited or not, Robin needed to take the rest of the day to prepare for her flight from the plateau. Chrom was notably silent as she walked, with Robin not even picking up a stray thought or feeling from him. It was understandable, though, considering. Well. His sister had just disappeared from in front of him. And that was another thing! Chrom was a _prince_ , and Emmeryn the _crown princess_. It just… Felt surreal. 

_‘What, don’t believe that I could be a prince?’_ For a voice in Robin’s head, the fact that she could tell he wasn’t as exuberant as normal was a lot easier than one would think. And it was understandable! But the fact stands.

“Not really, no. You didn’t act much like what I thought a prince would, at least,” Robin replied. Yet again, Chrom’s silence spoke volumes. The fact that she could feel his shock didn’t harm things either. 

_‘You base your thought process on how you think I’m not a prince on the fact that I don’t act like one?’_

“Not like how I pictured, no. Was thinking more… Gallant, rides in on a white horse and sweeps maidens off their feet. That kind of stuff,” Robin said. Chrom chuckled, the sound reverberating despite being only in her head. 

_‘Funnily enough, I used to ride a white horse. Didn’t sweep any maidens off their feet, though. Accidentally knocked them down? I… I did do that one, actually,’_ Chrom said. Robin laughed out loud, startling a nearby bird into flight. 

“Only you would admit to that,” she replied, smiling as Emmeryn’s cabin came into view. Robin could at least collect herself before adventuring off the Plateau, here. 

Her stomach grumbled. 

...And maybe make some food. With her stomach’s input into things, Robin started towards the cooking pot outside the cabin. The sun was getting pretty close to the horizon, too. She should get her food made, head to sleep, and she could make her last preparations in the morning. 

_‘You should make a stew, Robin!’_ Chrom chimed in as Robin reached for her pack to figure out what ingredients she had on her. She knew she at least had a fish or two, and a large collection of mushrooms, apples, and herbs. She did not, however, have any liquid on hand with which to make a stew. She’d prefer milk, but… No milk. And she’d rather not just take pond or lake water, who _knew_ what’d been in there. 

“I could roast the fish, maybe? And toast a mushroom, and an apple for some sort of dessert. I thought Emmeryn had some extra spices and herbs in her cabin…” Robin trailed off, glancing behind her with a thoughtful look. Emmeryn probably wouldn’t tell her _no_ if she was here. Probably. 

_‘Emm wouldn’t mind. I’d know,’_ Chrom said. Hm. With that, Robin nodded once to herself, left her pack to lean against the log near the cooking pot, and headed into the cabin to find those extra spices and herbs. She could clearly remember some thyme and black pepper, at the very least. And any seasoning was good seasoning, she thought. 

What caught Robin’s attention when she walked in, however, was Emmeryn’s open journal sitting on the table. She’d already read the woman’s journal once, Robin didn’t think she should again. She was in here for _spices_ , not to read Emmeryn’s personal musings! She’d already read through her recent thoughts anyways, what need did Robin have to disrespect Emmeryn’s privacy further? 

In a great show of restraint, Robin managed to not read the journal. At least, not until after she’d found the black pepper she’d remembered, along with some rosemary. Guiltily, Robin took a glance at the page it was left open on and had a double-take. 

“Why is my name in Emmeryn’s journal?” she asked, setting the pepper and rosemary on the table as she looked closer at Emmeryn’s journal. 

_‘Robin. Bit by bit, you may come to realize who I am.’_

“Chrom, I know how to _read_ ,” Robin cut him off, looking away from the journal and glaring at a crack in one of the walls. She actively _felt_ his sheepishness, and could picture him holding up his hands in defeat. Oddly, it felt like she’d had this exchange before. 

_‘Sorry, sorry. Should’ve known you’d still like to read in silence,’_ Chrom replied, all but confirming this had happened in the past. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Robin turned back to the journal. Chrom, thankfully, didn’t read along this time. 

_I am sorry for not revealing my true identity to you sooner. The truth is, after you woke from your long Slumber of Restoration, I did not know how to tell you all there was to say._

_Perhaps deceiving you was not the right thing to do. Still… You must admit I put on a great performance! But all joking aside… what I ask of you is of the utmost importance, my dear friend. I implore you, with all my heart… defeat the Fell Dragon Grima and save my beloved younger brother, Chrom. I understand this is no simple task I am asking of you, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can do it. I do not doubt it for a moment. I see courage in your eyes, just as I did those hundred years past. I believe in you, Robin._

_One last thing. You remember the doublet I gifted you - which I am sure will be useful on the journey ahead, yes? You can also weather the cold and other elements with cooked meals alone, but I must caution you against it. There is no time for recklessness._

_We are all counting on you._

_Your friend,_

_Emmeryn._

For a moment, Robin let Emmeryn’s words resonate with her. Yes, the gravity of the situation had already been impressed on her, but Robin wasn’t expecting Emmeryn to leave a final letter for her in her _journal_. Robin already felt bad for snooping in the first place, but now she just felt… Off. With a shake of her head, Robin left the journal sitting on Emmeryn’s table and grabbed the pepper and rosemary so she could start on her dinner. 

...Not to inflate her own ego, but her dinner was delicious. The black pepper and rosemary Robin found did spice it up, yes, but the fish and toasted mushroom skewer she had? Fantastic. And the slightly scorched apple she had as a form of dessert wrapped her - admittedly short - meal to a close. Robin went to sleep with a full stomach, and didn’t remember her dreams. 

That next morning, Robin scarfed down two apples, and decided to scan over her immediate area for anything she could take with her. Unfortunately, the cooking pot wasn’t mobile, but the wooden soup ladle that accompanied it was. Double-checking to make sure it would fit, Robin placed the ladle in her bag, before continuing to look around for any other apples or mushrooms or anything else she could add to her slowly growing horde of goods. 

Eventually, though, Robin couldn’t justify her continuing to hang around the Plateau any longer. As the sun reached its zenith and the shadows shrunk to their shortest, Robin finally made her way to one of the edges of the Great Plateau. 

“Well… I suppose this is it. I’ll venture into the unknown,” Robin said, almost to herself. Her hand strayed to the paraglider at her side, opposite her Slate. She’d practiced grabbing and unfurling it, and the actions seemed to come to her a lot easier than she thought they should. For someone that had only received the paraglider yesterday, her movements - even just on the ground - were smooth and sure. Almost like she’d done this before. 

_‘You’re not afraid, are you?’_ Chrom asked. Robin flinched. She wasn’t _afraid!_ It was just… Intimidating, to be up that high! Now that she could actually see the ground and see how far away it was, Robin had a right to be at least a _little_ bit afraid. 

“I’m _fine_ ,” Robin replied, her eyes not moving from the ground far below. Logically, she knew that part of why the ground below felt so far away was her dislike of heights. The brain tends to exaggerate things it doesn’t like, and for Robin? That was heights. Chrom had to talk her through free-climbing multiple times for a _reason_. 

_‘...You don’t sound fine. You don’t have to do this now, you know,’_ Chrom said reassuringly. If he could have put a hand on her shoulder, Robin thought, he would probably be doing that. Alas. 

“And if I stay up here? Hyrule will be devastated by the Fell Dragon! I could stay up here, and let the world fall to ruin - the world that I was supposed to save a hundred years past. I shouldn’t let a silly fear of _heights_ keep me from helping people!” Robin said, throwing her hands up and turning around. 

“I have a responsibility to all these people, Chrom! I should’ve been there when Grima first showed theirself, and then I _wasn’t_ ,” Robin continued, starting to pace. 

“The worst part of it all is that I can’t remember _any_ of it! I’m supposed to save a country that I can’t even remember, and I can’t even get off this _damn_ Plateau! I might as well just give up before I even begin, at this rate!” Her pacing only grew faster as she started to rant. 

_‘Robin…’_

“No, Chrom! You can’t pull that “I’m going to say your name all sad” thing with me, not right now! I’m supposed to save Hyrule! And yet, a _stupid_ fear that I can’t even remember the reason for is keeping me up here! How can I save what’s down there if I can’t even get off-” Robin cut herself off mid-word as she felt the lack of ground under her foot. Before she could correct herself, she was falling. Off the Plateau. 

Without even pausing to think, Robin grabbed the paraglider from her belt as she tilted herself backwards, unfurling it with a ‘snap’ as she straightened. Her rapid fall turned into a slow gliding descent as she guided herself towards a nearby hill. The landing was smooth, and after closing the paraglider and reattaching it to her belt, Robin paused. 

“Did that just… Happen?” Robin asked aloud, not expecting a response. 

_‘You did, in fact, just trip off the Great Plateau after ranting about not being able to get off it and instinctively managed to not only save yourself from falling, but glided to this hill safely. Now I’m glad you didn’t listen to my warning,’_ Chrom replied. Robin reached over with her left hand to smack him, before remembering that he wasn’t, in fact, there. 

“ _Urgh_ ,” Robin groaned, before looking out towards the twin mountains she could see in the distance, if barely. Time to go save Hyrule, she supposed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come talk to me about fire emblem (or star wars, i'm not picky) at my [tumblr!!](http://nerdiests.tumblr.com)


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